Stevens Would Bring Hard Work and Discipline to a Head Coaching Job

John Paddock's career arc first intersected with John Stevens' back in the late '80s when the former was coaching the AHL's Hershey Bears and the latter was a stay-at-home defenceman on the Philadelphia Flyers' farm club.
As is often the case in the hockey world, the two men would separate then reunite almost 20 years later. Paddock would leave the Flyers' fold but returned as the AHL's Philadelphia Phantoms coach in 2008. By that point, Stevens had worked his way up to the Flyers' head coaching position after six seasons as the Phantoms' head coach.